The facility had changed.
Not in any obvious way—no structural damage, no alarms screaming through the halls—but something was different. I felt it in the static humming beneath the tiles, in the way the air pressed heavier against my lungs. A shift in the atmosphere, subtle but undeniable. Like the calm before a storm that already knew your name.
I didn’t sleep the night before. Not really. I spent hours in my office, eyes locked on the surveillance feed of Cell A-13. On him. Watching him sit still for minutes that bled into hours, his head bowed, his expression unreadable—until it wasn’t. Until he would look up, straight into the camera, as if he knew I was watching. As if he could see through the lens, right into me.
And worse… part of me wanted him to.
I didn’t know what was more t
